*
“So, what happened to nothing going on between you and Jane?” Levi asked before Adam’s ass had even hit the barstool.
His cousin had texted him earlier and asked him to come by the bar after work and have a drink. He’d agreed even though it was the last thing he’d wanted to do. Adam’s less-than-enthusiastic response to the request had had nothing to do with not wanting to see his cousin and everything to do with not wanting to answer the inevitable onslaught of questions that awaited him.
Levi’s opening remarks were Exhibit A.
“It’s not what you think.” Adam didn’t feel like he owed his cousin an explanation, but he was pretty sure Levi didn’t agree.
“Oh, it’s not, huh?” Levi nodded casually. “Okay, so, you weren’t at Sue Ann’s last night on a double date with Jane’s grandparents, groping her like a teenager in a movie theater trying to cop a feel on his date.”
“No,” Adam answered flatly.
Last night, he had taken full advantage of the fact that he and Jane were supposed to be a couple. From the moment they’d walked into the café, he’d been touching her in some way. His arm around her. His hand on her thigh. Even leaning over and kissing her forehead when she had done something exceptionally cute. But he hadn’t felt her up in front of her grandparents.
Not that he hadn’t wanted to.
Levi stared at him. But Adam knew what his cousin was doing. Since moving here, he’d seen Levi in action. He was more than a good bartender. He was a top-notch interrogator (mainly because the parties being interrogated had no clue it was going on) and a better-than-average therapist.
Adam had to give his cousin props; he was good. But it just so happened that Adam was better. He’d been trained to withstand any kind of interrogation, including those that involved torture. A little silence, which made a normal man break and start talking to fill a perceived awkward pause, didn’t even make Adam blink.
“Let me get this straight. You and Jane aren’t dating.” Levi raised an eyebrow as he dried a beer mug.
“No,” Adam answered.
“Okay.” Levi nodded as if he were accepting Adam’s answer, but Adam knew that his cousin wasn’t done trying to get to the bottom of his personal life. “So, do you make it a habit of taking women you’re not dating out twice in one week? First to a black-tie fundraiser and then to a casual ‘meet the grandparents’ dinner?”
“No,” Adam repeated.
Levi set the beer stein on the drying rack and tossed the towel he’d been using over his shoulder. Placing both hands on the bar top, Levi leaned forward and looked at Adam with a cut-the-shit look in his eyes. “What’s going on with you and Jane?”
As much as Adam might have liked to keep whatever arrangement he and Jane had private, he knew that it wasn’t going to be possible. Not in this town. Jane had been right when she’d said that, if they acted like they were together, everyone would take notice and want details. Jane’s plan had been to let anyone who asked in on their ruse, and she seemed sure of it.
It wasn’t the way Adam would’ve handled things, though. For years, he had lived his life working under the theory that everyone was on a need-to-know basis and most people didn’t need to know anything. But this wasn’t his show. It was hers, so he would follow the parameters she’d laid out.
It looked like it was his cousin’s lucky day, because if it had been up to Adam, he wouldn’t have said jack shit.
“Jane’s grandparents have been worried about her since she moved to Hope Falls. She told them she was seeing someone to ease some of their concerns. They surprised her yesterday and showed up to meet her boyfriend, and I stepped in.”
Levi’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“Why what?” Adam thought he’d clearly explained the situation.
“Why did you step in?”
Good question. Adam knew the answer, but that didn’t mean he was going to tell Levi. At least, not the whole answer.
“I didn’t see any reason not to.” Which was true.
But the reason he hadn’t seen any reason not to was that the thought of spending any amount of time with Jane, and actually being able to touch her, had tempted him like nothing else ever had.
This situation was a perfect scenario for him. Not only was he helping out someone he’d grown to care about—despite his best efforts—there was the added bonus of scratching a very nasty itch that had been plaguing him since the moment he’d laid eyes on Jane.
It was inevitable that something would happen between them. Last night, the two kisses they’d shared had had nothing to do with the show they were putting on and everything to do with the insane chemistry between the two of them. The sexual tension between them was like an over-filled balloon about to burst.
“So let me get this straight. They came to meet Guy X and you just decided to step up and fill that role?” Levi arched one eyebrow.
“Pretty much.”
“And it was a surprise visit?” His tone was even, but Adam knew he was going somewhere with this. He felt like a defendant on the stand, and the prosecutor—a.k.a. Levi—was leading the witness.
“Yeah.”
“You and Jane didn’t know they were coming?” he asked, repeating a version of the question he’d just posed. He was going in for the kill.
“No, we didn’t.” Again, Adam answered honestly but with a fair amount of irritation bleeding through in his voice. His patience was wearing thin, and he was just about done humoring his cousin.
“So the kiss Walter and Dolores walked in on—that wasn’t for their benefit?” Levi asked—a little too smugly for Adam’s liking.
His cousin was just busting his balls, and it shouldn’t have affected Adam one way or the other. In fact, he didn’t understand why it was affecting him at all. But it was.
“What are you talking about?” Playing dumb and pleading the Fifth weren’t usually tactics he used when he was being interrogated, but he found himself doing both today.
Seeming all too eager to share exactly what he was talking about, Levi explained, “Sue Ann came in this afternoon and told me the funniest story that Dolores had shared with her when she and Walter were waiting for you two to finish something up at the office.
“She told Sue Ann that they had walked in on you, and I quote, ‘with Adam’s tongue halfway down Jane’s throat and Jane rubbing up against Adam like a cat in heat.’ Apparently, Jane’s grandparents thought it was adorable that you were mauling their granddaughter. So, if you didn’t know that they were coming, my question is: Why was your tongue halfway down her throat?”
“Remind me again. When did you turn into a gossiping schoolgirl?” Adam volleyed back.
“When I moved to Hope Falls,” Levi answered with zero shame. “Stop trying to avoid the question.”
Adam gave the same answer he’d given his cousin the day after he’d arrived here when he’d asked him about Alexis. “It’s complicated.”
“I think it’s a lot less complicated than you’re making it.” Levi grabbed a tall neck and opened it before setting it in front of Adam. Then he moved on from grilling him about Jane and worked his way down the bar, serving the patrons he’d been ignoring.
Adam took a sip of the cold beer and wondered if his cousin was right. Was he making things more complicated than they needed to be? He liked Jane. If their kisses were any indication, she liked him too. Maybe he should un-complicate things. Maybe he should play this thing out with Jane and see how it went.
Just as he was mulling over that appealing possibility, his phone alerted him to a text. When he saw who it was, he was reminded of exactly why he couldn’t and shouldn’t do that. It was Alexis.
His life was complicated enough without dragging someone else into it, especially someone as sweet and perfect as Jane. He needed to keep his distance. And he would.
As soon as he was done pretending to be her boyfriend.
Chapter 18
‡
“Oh tha
t feels so good,” Jane moaned as hot water sprayed over her shoulders, pelting her sore muscles in a rhythmic massage.
Closing her eyes, she luxuriated in the delicious heat enveloping her in the shower stall. She’d always preferred baths to showers. She loved filling the tub and relaxing in the warm water with a glass of wine and a book. But this particular shower was practically orgasmic.
As much as she’d wanted to soak in the bathtub, she’d decided to forgo her guilty pleasure because there was a chance her grandparents could be home any minute. When she’d returned from the Book Club meeting to an empty house, she’d texted her nana to make sure everything was okay. She’d received a return text that said that they were still “at the table playing” and would be home as soon as they “demolished” their “opponents.”
It was a quarter to eleven, and it appeared that total world domination hadn’t yet taken place. Jane wondered if she would have that kind of energy and stamina at their age. She doubted it since she didn’t have it now.
Rolling her head from side to side, Jane took full advantage of the aquatic massage. What had started out as a quick shower to rinse off before she waited for her nana and papa to get home had turned into a therapeutic spa experience the second the hot water had touched her skin.
Still, as amazing as this felt, it didn’t even run a close second to the feeling of Adam’s lips on hers. In fact, her lips still tingled from his all-consuming kisses like she was wearing menthol ChapStick. Her body craved another kiss from him like she imagined a dope addict needed their next hit. His kisses were like Pringles—once you popped, you couldn’t stop. It was all she could think about.
The therapist her grandparents had insisted she go to as a preteen had diagnosed her with “OCD tendencies.” Ever since being diagnosed, she’d always felt like she had a decent amount of control over her obsessive impulses. In fact, she’d tried to use them to her advantage as a drive to succeed. Now, every synapse in her body was focused on one thing and one thing only: another kiss from Adam.
All day, she’d had to stop herself from making some excuse to go into the office on the off chance that, if they were alone again, lightning would strike a third time and he’d kiss her.
It was pathetic. She could admit that. But at least she hadn’t acted on her Desperate Housewife-esque impulses.
She hadn’t seen Adam since they stood on the porch last night after he’d seen her grandparents home and taken care of getting their luggage squared away. The saying “out of sight, out of mind” definitely didn’t apply to this situation. Adam consumed her thoughts every hour, every minute, every second that they were apart.
Her decision to take the day off to spend with her nana and papa had partially been motivated by the nerves swelling like a giant wave about to crash onto the shore inside her. All night, she had tossed and turned with the memory of Adam’s kisses filling her mind. When’d she thought of facing him at work this morning, she’d chickened out. Plain and simple. Jane was sure that one look at her and Adam would have known how much she’d been obsessing about him, which would have been more than a little embarrassing. He’d have seen through her like cellophane wrap over a fruit salad. All of her thoughts and fantasies would have been exposed as clearly as the grapes, watermelon, and pineapple in her favorite snack.
Jane had always been a planner. She’d always tried to be two steps ahead of the game and the only way to do that was to know how to play it. With Adam, she had no idea what her next move, or his, was going to be. She felt like she was a pawn in the game of life. Her happiness was on the line, and she wasn’t sure what the rules were. Navigating through this situation was like trying to put a jigsaw puzzle together without an image of the final picture to guide her. She was winging it, attempting to click pieces together and praying that it would all fit together.
It was driving her crazy.
Her anxiety level had gone from merely high to skyscraper heights.
Control. Jane needed to take back some control. Scrolling her mind, she created a mental spreadsheet of exactly how to do that. Tasks. Tasks would put her back in control.
She knew she still had to pack, check her e-mails, and make sure nothing needed her attention before she got up early tomorrow to travel to San Francisco. It was a baby step, but it was something that was one hundred percent under her control.
Jane turned the shower off and stepped out onto the plush, pink rug. The bathroom had white-and-black-checkered tiles with pink accents, and she’d purchased towels and two mats to match the delicate color. It was a silly thing, but every time she was in her bathroom, she felt a little thrill of pride at the décor.
It made her happy. While she allowed that feeling to resonate with her as she dried herself off, a renewed sense of self started to take root. Whether or not a few outstanding situations in her life were spiraling, she was still in control. She’d made this house a home, and she’d created a good life for herself. She had a successful career, money in her savings, and, as had been made evident tonight, good friends. And she’d done it all without a man, real or fake, by her side.
No matter what ended up happening between her and Adam, she was going to be fine. Humiliated if this ruse blew up in her face? Yes. Heartbroken when it inevitably ended badly? Yes. Destroyed beyond repair? No. She’d work with whatever pieces she had left of herself when this thing was over to rebuild the rest.
After grabbing the hair dryer, Jane flipped the switch on and bent over to dry her hair. Just as she was getting into a groove of separating pieces and blowing the dryer from root to tip, everything in the house went dark and silent.
Shit.
Jane didn’t have time or patience to deal with this; she also didn’t have a choice. As she walked out of the bathroom, she put her arms through her robe and pulled the belt tight around her waist before looping it to hold it in place. While moving through the darkened house, Jane was careful to watch her steps. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d stubbed her toe as she’d stumbled out to reset the circuit breaker.
A shiver ran through her as she opened the back door. The mountain air always grew cold at night, and the fact that she was wearing only a thin, silk robe and her hair was still wet didn’t help—it only multiplied the chill factor. She rushed down the two steps to lean precariously over the porch railing and open the steel box, only vaguely aware of the back door closing because she was so focused on the task at hand. It didn’t register to her consciousness until she completed her task, flipped the switch, and turned to go back inside.
An uneasy feeling swept over her when she came face-to-face with the closed door. The feeling magnified when she tried the handle and it didn’t budge.
Seriously?!
Frustration boiled up inside her. All she wanted to do was take a shower, pack, wait up for her nana and papa, and try to get a few hours of sleep before she had to leave in the morning. Was that too much to ask?
Apparently. Her inner voice, which sounded a lot like Nikki, answered.
Okay, she would just go around to the front door and pray that Adam didn’t see her sneaking around in her robe. With a plan in place, Jane stepped down, and the silky material covering her pulled taut. Her eyes darted down to see that the bottom of her robe was caught in the door.
No, no, no, no. This can’t be happening.
She tugged on the silken cloth, and tears welled up in her eyes when she realized that it was good and stuck. Changing her tactic, she violently jiggled the door handle. She even put all of her weight into trying to force her way in by jamming her shoulder against the solid oak door. After several failed attempts, and what she was sure would end up being a nasty bruise, she came to the conclusion that the door wasn’t going to budge.
Unfortunately, there would be no sneaking around to the front of the house; she was stuck in place just like her robe. She couldn’t take it off to free herself because she was naked underneath it. Upon scanning the area around her for anything that might
aid her in getting out of her predicament, she almost squealed when she saw her pruning shears. It was like she’d found a winning lottery ticket.
Her palms were sweaty when she picked them up and they almost slipped out of her hand. If that happened, she could only imagine the newspaper headlines: Woman Stuck in Door Stabs Herself in the Foot and Bleeds to Death. Okay, maybe she was being dramatic, but those shears were sharp.
After gathering the fabric in a fist, Jane cut through the silk of her favorite robe. Long ago, she’d learned that, in the game of life, sacrifices had to be made. In this case, the casualty was the robe she’d had since college. Once she was freed from the confines of the captured material, Jane hightailed it around the side of the house and up the front walkway so fast that she was sure she could have given the Road Runner a run for his money.
Unfortunately, her speed didn’t assist her in getting inside her house. The front door was locked, thanks to Adam’s lecture on the importance of locking the deadbolt every time she entered the house.
Adam. The only other soul within rock-throwing distance.
One cursory glance across the street revealed that his truck was in the driveway and the light in his garage was on. He was most likely working out. Images of his rippled, bare chest as he lay on his weight bench and bench-pressed the bar above his head flashed her in head. She’d had the pleasure of witnessing him in all of his workout glory, and that move was, by far, her favorite. It had only happened once. After that, he’d worked out with the door closed. But, oh boy, once was more than enough.
Shaking her head, she tried to push that vivid imagery to the back recesses of her mind and focus on the crisis at hand. She needed to get into her house. If Adam would let her use the phone, then she could call a locksmith.
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